Leaving Annalise (Katie & Annalise Book 2) by Pamela Fagan Hutchins Page A

just for him. For me.” A tear welled up and threatened to spill. Don’t do it, I ordered. Don’t you dare roll down my face.
    “I’m sorry,” Nick said. “It seemed like the work was going so well. You’ll have to find a new general contractor, I guess.”
    “Maybe. I hope not. Crazy was trying to finish before summer, because all his workers take off weeks at a time then. We won’t make it now. This sets us back, way, way back.” The tear spilled. Dammit. “Bad things happen to empty houses here. Just last month a property was burglarized and torched when the owners were off island. I invested all my savings, and I’ve given up my job until I finish the house. I can’t afford for things to blow up now.” I hated to sound weak, but I blurted out, “I wish you could stay.”
    Nick frowned and sighed. “I wish I could, too, but I have to get back. Teresa’s leaving for basic, and I have to find a safe place for Taylor and me.”
    The road crossed through a deep cut in the hilltop. Man-carved cliffs of white stone faced us from either side of the road. When we crested the hill, I saw the airport below us on the other side. “What do you mean?”
    “For us to live. Taylor and me.”
    “He’s living with you? Why?”
    “Because Teresa asked me to keep him.”
    I was so confused. “Start at the beginning. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Where is she going to be, and why does she want you to keep him?”
    Nick dragged his fingers from the front of his hair across his scalp to the back and sighed. “I’m sorry. I thought I told you the first night I was here.”
    I thought back. He had talked about Teresa and Taylor, then Annalise had thrown a dust devil at him. That had started some hanky panky, and we had never resumed the conversation. “No.”
    “Oh, God. OK, well, Teresa signed up for the Marines. She has to go to basic training in California. She asked me to keep Taylor for a few months until she’s done.”
    “Why not your parents?” I asked. I didn’t shriek it, but close.
    “Because of Derek,” he said. “For a lot of reasons. And because I’m his uncle.”
    I kept my mouth shut by sheer force of will, but only barely. When I trusted myself, I said, “OK.”
    “I have to keep him available for Teresa to visit while she’s in training. It will be a few months before I can leave Dallas.”
    “It will be a few months before I can leave St. Marcos.” I bit my lip to keep him from seeing it tremble.
    He put his hand on my leg. “It’s going to be OK, Katie. We’ll figure this out. I’m all in when it comes to us, I promise.”
    I turned in the gate to the airport. Too soon. We were already there, and there was so much left to say. Yet I knew he had to hurry, had to leave. I parked at the curb beside his outdoor gate. The line to check in for American stretched to the street under the open-air pavilion. We jumped out of the truck.
    Nick hefted his navy Nike carry-on bag out of the back of the truck and dropped it on the sidewalk. He barely had time to open his arms before I lunged into them and smashed my face into the Stingray logo on his shirt. I gulped in the scent of him. I committed the feel of his shoulder blades and back muscles to memory.
    “Just a few months. It sounds like a long time, but it’s really not,” he said.
    It sounded like forever to me.

Chapter Thirteen
    Things didn’t get better any time soon. Work on Annalise ground to a halt for a few days while we all waited and worried about Crazy. Finally, the doctors diagnosed a stroke. They said his right side was partially paralyzed and his recovery would be slow and uncertain. I was torn up about it for the both of us.
    To make matters worse, later that week Ava and I had a gig at a bar called Trudy’s, which was right next door to Fortuna’s. I dressed carefully. The risk of a Bart encounter was high and Ava’s producer friend was coming. I donned a white sleeveless dress with a round neck that